The 0-8-4
by EmmaJMcGhee
Summary: Ward is away on a mission when the rest of the team gets roped in to check out an 0-8-4 that turns up in Southern France.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this was originally supposed to be a one-shot, thanks to a prompt from Serenity Shadowstar. But I dragged it out too long, so it'll be a two-shot (not that I've written the other half yet). I'm so sorry to have taken so long to write this!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't even own the story for this one, credit goes to Serenity Shadowstar for thinking it up! :)**

* * *

"You know, if you're cheating, I'll find out."

"_Why_ would I possibly cheat when it's so easy to beat you?"

"Hey!"

"Well, it's true…"

Ward gave Skye a look that never worked on her, but was intended to make her fear his wrath. "G6."

"Miss. B1." She replied, slumped back in her seat.

"Miss."

"What?"

Ward looked up. "Miss. Miles away from anything." He said smugly.

Skye shrugged. "Thanks for the tip."

Ward froze for a split second. _Damn, she did it again._ "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Make me give away clues to help you. I've been trained to avoid that at all costs, it risks lives."

"I'm irresistible." She replied in a casual tone, reaching for a pretzel as she did so to avoid her S.O.'s gaze.

"I'm supposed to compartmentalise."

"Oh relax, Turbo. We're not on a mission. It's a game of Battleship!"

Ward leaned forward to deliver his next move when Coulson got their attention as he descended the stairwell from his office. "Sir?"

"HQ have a mission for you, Agent Ward." Coulson replied, moving to the comm table as May appeared from the direction of the cockpit.

Ward looked back at Skye, a smirk sneaking its way onto his face. "You were saying?"

"Well, _now_ you can compartmentalise." Skye snapped back, and Ward raised his eyebrows. "Sorry."

Ward nodded and stood to follow Coulson.

"Hopefully it's not too dangerous."

Ward glanced back at the sound of Skye's voice, but she was merely watching him out of the corner of her eyes. The typical attitude she held around Ward was there, but concern shone through the more she gazed at him.

"Ward!"

Coulson's shout brought Ward out of his reverie and he walked away from Skye without a word. Skye sighed and started packing up the board game, worry seeping into her heart.

* * *

"Sir." Ward greeted as he walked into the briefing room.

"Agent Ward, I need you to be more punctual to mission meetings that don't involve Skye. Focus." Coulson said firmly.

"Sorry, sir."

"So what does HQ want Ward for?" May asked, turning the men's attention to the matter at hand.

"We have a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist undercover in a Russian mob with ties to the Kremlin. He's recently informed us that he may have been made and called for an extraction."

"So that's where I come in." Ward added.

"Yes. You'll infiltrate the mob, find Dr. Allan Moore, known within the organisation as Abram Danilovich," he said, gesturing to the screen where the man's S.H.I.E.L.D. ID photo was displayed. "And get out. Dr. Moore speaks fluent Russian and single-handedly earned his way into the inner circles of the mob."

"So why couldn't he give us the mob's name?" May queried.

"Because there isn't one. Hard to be charged for affiliation with a mob that they can't name."

"So, I'm to get in, find him, and get out?" Ward asked and Coulson nodded. "Should take a few days, tops."

"Exactly what I wanted to hear. May?"

"Setting the course." She replied, tapping on the tablet in front of her. "We should be there in under twelve hours."

"Copy that. Ward, you have free time for the next five hours, but then I want you to rest before we land."

"Understood, sir." Ward straightened up and left the briefing room, heading straight for Skye's bunk where she had secluded herself. "Skye." He called through the door.

"What?" she pulled the door open.

"Training. Now. Come on." He nodded towards the cargo bay and left her standing there, spluttering noises of protest escaping her mouth.

May and Coulson, still standing in the briefing room, smiled at each other.

"'Training'. He just wants to spend time with her." May remarked.

"As long as she doesn't get vital information out of him in regards to the mission." Coulson said, eyebrow creasing as he considered the very real possibility that that could happen.

"He'd only tell her the outline. Nothing to make her worry too much."

"He has trouble keeping things to himself when she presses him."

"Really."

"You didn't see them playing Battleship. She asked why she missed and he told her it was far away from anything he'd set up."

May considered this. "I'll see what FitzSimmons are up to."

"Good idea."

* * *

Left.

Right.

Left, left.

Right.

Over and over, Skye jabbed in a repetitive fashion, her arms burning from the excessive use. But she didn't stop or complain, partly because she wanted to impress Ward and give him peace of mind while on his mission and partly because she was frustrated that he wasn't giving anything away. Although that reason may be fuelled by the fact that May was on the other side of the glass.

"Good." Ward praised, proud of how intensely Skye was focusing on the task at hand. "Now again."

Skye dramatically gave an internal sigh and lifted her hands once again.

Right.

Left.

Right, right.

Left.

* * *

"Agent Ward!" May called, striding through the glass doors half an hour later. "It's been an hour. Give Skye a break."

"Oh thank god!" Skye groaned in relief, letting herself fall onto the mats. Cringing, she rubbed and massaged her burning arms.

"You should have said something, Skye." Ward said, walking over to where his rookie was lying down. "If you were in that much pain."

"You'll be gone for the next few days, so I thought intensive training was in order." Skye ended with a mumble, not meeting her S.O.'s gaze.

"The punching bag will still be here."

Skye flicked her eyes up to Ward's to find a mixture of amusement and pride.

"You did good. Is there anything else you wanna work on before you shower?" he asked, pulling her to her feet.

"Not for the first time, I really wish there was a swimming pool on this plane." She quipped as she unwrapped her hands. Ward moved to unhook the sack of sand that hung from the ceiling.

"The sheer weight of holding any decent amount of water, or any liquid for that matter, would have to be carefully balanced out on the other side of the plane." Simmons interjected from the other side of the open lab doors.

"And more weight requires more fuel." May added.

"Okay, okay, I was just making a suggestion." Skye relented. "And it's not like we don't have a water tank for the bathroom, anyway." This part was only heard by the specialists, who sniggered at Skye's last-word attitude. The rookie in question grabbed the mats from the side and placed them where the punching bag had hung merely moments earlier. "Sparring, Robot. Come on."

An involuntary smile jumped onto Ward's face and he shook his head, moving onto the mats to stand in front of her. May smirked and shared the look with the two scientists before signalling for them to leave. They hurriedly shrugged off their lab coats and made for the exit. The couple in the cargo bay had already started their mock fight, and they heard a thump as Skye hit the mats with her back, Ward almost completely covering her.

"Are you _trying _to make it even easier for me to beat you?"

"Are you trying to be _obnoxious_?"

FitzSimmons laughed silently as they left the lab, still hearing their bickering from the stairs.

* * *

"We have a mission." Coulson announced.

"Please tell me we're not sending someone else off alone. I'm worried enough about Ward." Skye said as she emerged quickly from her bunk.

"He's barely been gone a day, he'll be fine." Simmons assured her, standing against the comm table next to Fitz.

"Yeah, I hope so." Skye muttered.

"So the mission?" May asked Coulson, knowing that a change in topic would alleviate Skye's increasing concern for a while.

"An 0-8-4."

"Our MO." Skye remarked.

"Skye!" Both Coulson and May scolded, although they were partly amused. The hacker made no acknowledgements of their exasperation.

"So an 0-8-4…where?" Simmons redirected the conversation back to the mission.

"France. Southern France, to be exact. In the remote mountains of Parc National de la Vanoise." Coulson answered her, throwing a warning look to Skye to behave.

"Some cave painting come to life?" Skye added in again, getting somewhat shocked expressions from the two eldest in the room. The scientists, meanwhile, rolled their eyes.

"No." May answered carefully, looking at Skye suspiciously.

"But…?" she challenged in the same tone.

"It is in a cave." Coulson finished for her. "How do you guess these things?"

Skye glanced away and back again as she pouted, adding a shrug for the complete effect. "Stabbing in the dark?" she frowned. "But something about this mission just doesn't feel right."

"It's completely illogical to be coming to conclusions when we have so little data." Simmons interjected. "Gut feelings, however, _can _be worth listening to under the right circumstances."

"Yeah, thanks for that Spock, but I'm seriously concerned about the legitimacy of this op, or at least its levels of safety."

"We'll be in remote mountainous terrain, Skye. How safe do you expect it to be?" Fitz spoke up, his accent affected slightly by the underlying laughter in his voice.

Skye gave him a very unimpressed look and turned back to Coulson. "Did you pick out this op, or did HQ give us no choice?"

"The latter." May said for him, equally unimpressed.

"Regardless on our gut feelings, we have a job to do." Coulson ruled, issuing order like a judge in a courtroom. "So, May and FitzSimmons will be the ones to go into the cave, pick up the 0-8-4. I will be at the exploration team's camp to ensure their safety, and Skye will remain here, overseeing communications."

"The exploration team?" Skye asked, half amused, half confused. "What were they looking for, some alien carvings?"

Again, Coulson and May looked surprised at the accuracy of the hacker's witty guesses.

"Holy no way. They actually _were_?"

"Ahh…more specifically, carvings and paintings _of_ aliens, _by_ humans." Coulson replied, shaking his head in bemusement. _Another Skye-abnormality I have to get used to._

"We touch down in 10 minutes." May interjected, pushing the conversation on with the mission parameters.

* * *

"Skye, are you getting this?" Simmons squealed as her, Fitz, May and the DWARFS worked their way into the rear of the cave. In the centre lay an object the size of a child's head, black in colour, yet it seemed to be glowing and gave off the strongest light in the room.

"Receiving and recording feed." Skye answered over the comms, hitting a few electronic buttons on the holocomm in front of her, and glaring at the visuals she was getting. "And be careful, you guys. That thing's giving me bad vibes and I'm still on the Bus."

"Och, stop worrying so much, Skye." Fitz scoffed, rolling his eyes and sharing laughing looks with his teammates. "We're not even gonna touch it until we've determined as much as we can about it, and even then it's not gonna be with bare hands."

Simmons knelt down close to the alien object, taking in every detail covering its intricate surface. "The next time you say 'gonna' twice in a sentence, Fitz." She threatened. "I'll tie you to the sofa and make you watch a documentary on the evolution of modern English."

Fitz's eyes widened, freezing a little as he wasn't sure whether or not to take her seriously. A faint snicker from May jolted him back to the task at hand and he refocused on the tablet in his hands.

* * *

"Sir?" Skye's voice through his ear piece made Coulson jump a little. "May and FitzSimmons are done and on their way back."

"Copy that, Skye." Coulson replied, turning around to look at the mountain looming next to them. "I see them."

When the team finally stood next to them, the item in a crate held by May, Coulson smiled at them. "Great work, guys. What did you find out?"

"It seems to be some sort of artefact. A remnant, perhaps, of alien visitors to this area, and the people who lived here at the time may have perceived it as a relic." Simmons began explaining. "The cave paintings date to at least 34,000 years ago, and that's just the entrance." Her enthusiasm seemed to seep onto Fitz as he took off from where she stopped.

"From what the DWARFS tell us, nothing appears to have activated it, so perhaps it's been glowing like it was when we found it for…thousands of years."

"Glowing?" Skye verbalised Coulson's curiosity, and he reached out to open the crate.

"Careful, sir. It could well be like some of the other alien 0-8-4s that S.H.I.E.L.D. have come across."

"In what way?" he asked as he lightly brushed it. Its light pulsed and the low hum of the comms in their ears died.

"Guys? Hello? Dammit." Skye cursed and contemplated leaving the Bus to look for them. She knew that she was under strict instructions to stay on the plane, but she was more concerned and curious to pay anything more than base attention to that. _What would Ward do?_ she thought.

Marching out through the living area of the plane and out through the cargo hold, Skye saw a mass panic of people as they scattered, May dragging Fitz away from Coulson and Simmons who were frantically trying to find a way to deactivate the item that was pulsing more rapidly. After pausing for a moment, unclear as to whether or not she should go any closer but seeing that Simmons was becoming increasingly panicked, she ran forward. Ignoring May's shout of warning, Skye grabbed the artefact and threw away as hard as she could.

Just in time. No sooner had Skye thrown the artefact away and the three of them ducked for cover, Coulson and Simmons instinctively rushing for the open cargo ramp of the Bus, the pulsing climaxed and let out a shockwave that tossed Skye like a rag doll into the side of the aeroplane. She hit the ground mere seconds later, lying limp and unmoving on the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So hey guys! I thought that some writing was due out from me some point soon, and as I can't access my other works at the moment, I thought that completing this prompt was in order. :3 Anyway, I hope you enjoy this! Reviews, please! And when I have less on my overflowing plate to do, I'll let you know so if any of you want me to write fics based on prompts, no matter how big or small :)**

**Also, hope all you NZers and Aussie's had a great ANZAC Day, full of memories and gratitude! :) Sam Neill's _Tides of Blood_ was a great documentary, don't you think?**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't even own this story, all credit goes to Serenity Shadowstar who gave me the idea for this! :)**

* * *

Ward walked up the ramp of the Bus a week later, battered and bruised, but smiling. The mission hadn't quite gone to plan, but he accomplished what he had set out to do, and now he was back with his family.

_I can't wait to see the look on Rookie's face when she sees me. _He thought, scanning the assembled people. He frowned. _Where is she?_

Everyone who lived on the Bus with him were all standing at the top of the cargo bay; solemn, sober expressions covered their faces. In addition to their morbid appearances, FitzSimmons had red-rimmed eyes, May's mask seemed to be cracking and Coulson's face looked to be the epitome of defeat. He just stopped in front of them, every possible scenario that could have caused this running through his head, and his face showed nothing but horror.

"Sir?" he choked out. "Where's Skye?"

Coulson stepped forward, a single tear running down his left cheek as he tried to say something, but nothing came out.

"Where is Skye?" Ward's voice became more forceful as he desperately tried to cling onto his last remaining bit of hope. "What the hell happened?"

May stepped forward this time, placing her hand on Coulson's upper arm to let him know that she could do this. "We had another mission while you were gone. HQ insisted, so we had to go even though Skye was feeling off about the whole thing."

"Get to the point." Ward whipped out, not in the mood for beating around the bush.

May nodded, her lips pursed tightly as though she was struggling to hold back her tears. Which she probably was. "We had to retrieve an 0-8-4 from an ancient cave in Southern France, and Coulson touched it."

"We're not entirely sure how it did what it did." Simmons continued when May swallowed and ducked her head, tears leaking out of her eyes. Coulson put his arms around her, rubbing gently. "But it knocked out all communications, and as Skye was running that from the holocomm, she didn't know what had happened." Her voice sounded as clear as it could be when talking around a choked up throat. Her bottom lip was trembling and Fitz's hand, clasped in hers, squeezed reassuringly.

"The thing started pulsing and May was dragging me away while Jemma and Coulson were trying to stop it. Skye," Fitz stopped in his recount, dropping his head forward and swallowing thickly before resettling a courageous expression upon his face. "Skye came running out of the Bus, grabbed the 0-8-4 off Jemma and threw it away from everyone. She probably saved them when she did that, but she was…" he trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.

"She was…?" Ward prompted, anxiety curling like a gnarled hand over his heart.

"She was thrown into the side of the plane when the 0-8-4 released a shockwave." Coulson finally found his voice, speaking up from Ward's right side, and drawing the man's attention to him.

His breath seemed to be knocked out of him. Ward could hardly believe what he was hearing. "Then she's…?" Like Fitz, he couldn't bring himself to complete what he was saying.

"She's not dead." Simmons hurriedly said, and Ward looked at her with disbelief and hope warring over his features. "But she's in a medically induced coma, to help her heal."

"So where is she?"

"In a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital. She's been there a week, but her current condition isn't hopeful."

* * *

"Where is she?" Ward demanded as he strode into the hospital foyer an hour and a half later, Simmons on his right side and May on his left.

"A couple of floors up. But Ward, you have to let reception know you're here to see her. And she isn't always allowed visitors." Simmons said quickly as she nearly ran to keep up with him. "Ward, please! It's protocol!"

"Screw protocol. I want to see her." He growled out. "What room?" His attitude wasn't helped by the doctor who suddenly stepped into his path, effectively blocking his route to the elevators.

"Sorry, but no one is allowed into the wards without checking in at reception." Even though he was a few inches shorter, he didn't relent from Ward's glare. "Who are you here for?"

"Agent Skye." May answered him, grasping hold of Ward's arm to stop him from potentially attacking the doctor. The doctor's brows creased together in thought before recognition of the name lit up his gaze.

"Skye with no last name? I'm afraid her condition is too unstable at the moment for visitors. I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave." His expression was sombre and understanding, but his voice held firm underlines that would not sway. "We will be in contact when she is stable."

"Thank you, Doctor…?" May trailed off, asking for his name.

"Smith. Dr. John Smith." The man smiled, holding his arm out towards the exit. Ward continued to glare at him before being pulled away by May and Simmons.

"Ward, please understand. We haven't even seen her since they took her into surgery." Simmons pleaded with him to calm him down, though she understood that this may be the only thing that he wouldn't be able to fully rein in his temper over.

"I understand, Simmons, I do. But I couldn't even see her through a window?" The anger was still simmering, but his voice was laced with vulnerability and despair.

"They'd know that as soon as you saw her, you'd barge in there." She replied gently. "And don't bother denying it, because we all know it's true."

Ward's shoulder's slumped and the two women sternly guided him back to the SUV.

* * *

For the next few days, the mood aboard the Bus was tense. Ward either trained by himself, drank by himself or ate by himself; no matter what the others did, nothing could shake the dark feelings of depression clouding his mind. He slipped into a rigid routine, trying desperately to numb the pain of potential loss.

It wasn't until four days after he returned that the team received good news. Simmons was briefing Coulson once again about Ward's emotional state when a call came through from Director Fury. Coulson wearily stood in front of the screen and accepted the call. "Sir." He greeted.

"Jeez, Coulson. You look like you haven't slept in days." Came the reply from the one-eyed man in charge.

"That's because he _hasn't_." Simmons muttered, but still loud enough for both men to hear. Coulson, if he wasn't too tired, would have given her a look of slight annoyance. Fury looked from her to Coulson and narrowed his eye.

"You _haven't_ slept? What part of that comes under the heading 'Looking after Yourself'?" he stated bluntly, leaning forward in his seat.

"It doesn't. But right now, it's not my well-being that I'm concerned about."

"I'm well aware of your fatherly affection for your consulting hacker. Who by the way, shouldn't have been listed in the hospital files as an _agent_."

"It's not just Skye, sir." Simmons put in, pulling the director's attention off of her exhausted boss. "Agent Ward, as a result of Skye's condition, has become rather depressed."

A raised eyebrow met this assertion. "Relationships between members of your team, Phil?" he flicked his gaze back to the man in the crumpled suit. "You just love flouting the rules, don't you?"

Coulson kept his gaze angled downward. "I had no reason to forbid it. They work well together."

"Hmph. Well, you can give your resident Level 7 specialist a reason to cheer up. I've been told that Skye's condition has become stable, and they're about to bring her off life support."

Both Simmons' and Coulson's heads snapped up. Fury smirked, but with genuine care in his eye.

"She's expected to wake up soon, and I assume that she's gonna want her family to be there when she does."

The pair in Coulson's office exchanged delighted looks, unable to do much more in that moment than beam and laugh with relief. "Thank you, sir." Coulson eventually managed to say.

Fury chuckled warmly. "You're welcome, Phil. Now go tell your boy." He disconnected the call.

Coulson turned to talk to Simmons, but she was already rushing out the door.

* * *

"WARD!" Simmons yelled as she rushed down the stairs by the lounge, ran across the floor, and nearly slammed into the railing overlooking the cargo hold where Ward was attempting to destroy the punching bag. "Ward!"

"What." He said flatly, looking up at her and pausing in his assault.

Simmons was smiling so wide, he almost dared to hope. The next words out of her mouth alleviated that to reality. "Skye's stabilised!"

Ward's mouth dropped open and he stared at Simmons, his eyes wide with the blossoming joy in his chest. "I can visit her?"

Simmons nodded. Her excitement was seeping through into Ward, and even Fitz walked out of the lab with a delighted smile. "We all can! And the doctors expect she'll wake up soon!"

Energy thrummed through the specialist, but it wasn't the kind he'd succumbed to over the last few days. This was excitement. He rushed up the stairs to give Simmons a hug and bolted for his bunk before emerging seconds later with a towel and a bundle of clothes.

* * *

Skye's eyelids felt heavy as she slowly tried to open them. Groaning as bright light stabbed into her pupils, causing blinking white dots in her vision, she gradually became aware of the rest of her body becoming receptive to sensations.

"Oh, sorry." A familiar and comforting voice said hurriedly. The light dimmed drastically, and Skye began to take in her surroundings. Warm pressure was applied to her left hand and she looked over, a face swimming into view. "Is that better?"

"Ward?" she whispered, not quite able to make out the features of the face well enough to recognise who it was, but she knew that voice anywhere.

"Yeah, Skye. It's me." He replied softly. A grin became discernible from the rest of the blur, and Skye smiled back weakly.

"You're a blur. What did Russia do to you?" she asked, her voice rather hoarse from disuse, and her pronunciations were slurred.

Ward chuckled. "Nothing I couldn't handle. But why are you worried about me? You're the one lying in hospital."

"Hospi…" her voice died and she started blinking rapidly, obviously trying to see clearly. It worked, mostly. "What…?" she looked back at Ward again. "That damn 0-8-4."

Ward, whose face she could now actually see, smiled sadly. "What were you doing trying to throw alien junk away?" he asked in an attempt to joke, and Skye's mouth twitched.

"That was almost funny." She mused out loud. "My robot's learning humour." His warm laugh caused her to smile, which in turn caused her to groan as the muscles in her face were used to being slack.

"Careful." He warned. "You're not in here for nothing."

"Yeah, about that…what happened after that bloody 0-8-4 decided to have the final say?"

"You were in need of surgery." At Skye's confused look, he elaborated. "The 0-8-4's 'final say' was throwing you into the side of the Bus."

Skye took a few moments to process this. "But I don't feel any pain…am I paralysed?!" she panicked.

"No! No, of course not Skye. Your spine wasn't broken, just a little tender like the rest of you."

"So what _is_ wrong with me?"

"Ah…" His brows creasing, Ward reached for the tablet hung on the end of the bed, and brought up initial results. "It says here you got 8 damaged ribs; 5 fractured, 3 broken. So you _have_ to stay here until they're well and truly healed." He said with a stern look. "A dislocated shoulder. The immediate surgery was to stop the massive internal bleeding from the impacts–"

"Impacts?" she interrupted.

"When you hit the Bus and the ground."

"Oh. Anything else?"

Ward looked back down at the list. "Multiple cuts on your face and arms, not that those weren't already obvious…and a concussion."

"It's gonna be a bumpy ride." Skye mumbled.

"Skye." Ward said softly, and waited until she was looking at him before continuing. "You suffered all that, and stabilised after just over a week and a half. That's pretty damn amazing."

Skye smiled shyly. "Well, I always thought I was pretty amazing myself, so…" she trailed off, and Ward's laugh made the ill-timed joke worth it.

"So do I." he replied, a blush tingeing his cheeks.


End file.
